March 26, 2026, submitted by Pastor Ben, Resurrection Lutheran Church

Church attendance in America has fallen dramatically in recent years. There are many reasons for that, but one of them is painfully clear to me: too many people have watched churches become captive to political identities that have little to do with Jesus.

Let me be clear. Politics is inherently moral. They concern justice, power, truth, violence, mercy, and the well-being of our neighbors. Christians cannot pretend such matters are beneath our concern. The prophets did not ignore public life. Jesus did not ignore the suffering caused by hypocrisy, domination, or indifference. The Church is not called to be silent about moral issues so it must speak to politics.

But the moral compass of the Church is not a political party or a national movement.

It is Jesus Christ.

And I must confess that I am deeply grieved by what I have heard from some pastors and churches in this moment. I do not say that lightly. I say it with sorrow. When pastors excuse cruelty, cheer warmongering, speak callously about immigrants, or casually denounce people as terrorists, they are not proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are preaching something else.

There comes a point when a pastor must say plainly: this does not sound like Christ. It does not reflect the One who told us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, welcome the stranger, care for the poor, and show mercy. It does not reflect the One who warned against hardness of heart. It does not reflect the One who chose the cross instead of domination.

When the Church’s witness is shaped more by partisan leaders than by the Beatitudes, something terribly serious has gone wrong, and pastors have a duty to speak up.

I believe many people have stopped going to church for exactly this reason.

It is not because they think moral questions do not matter. It is because they have heard churches speak about those questions in ways that feel arrogant, harsh, inhumane, and unrecognizable as the way of Jesus. They have heard immigrants spoken of with suspicion rather than compassion. They have watched violence praised with little grief for the dead. They have seen people condemned with sweeping labels instead of being treated as human beings made in the image of God. They have watched faith tied so tightly to one political posture that there seemed to be no room left for grace, humility, lament, or love of neighbor.

The Church must be different. Not because it has no convictions, but because its convictions are cruciform. Not because it withdraws from public life, but because it refuses to worship at the altar of power. Christians should absolutely speak to moral issues in society, but we must do so as disciples of Jesus.

I am not saying that all the pastors or churches in town have done the things mentioned above. It seems to me that most have thought it wise to avoid the issues altogether. I don’t want my voice to be confused with complicity. As MLK said so eloquently, “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

At RLC, we do not want to be a church of partisan loyalty. We are not interested in baptizing ideology. We believe the teachings of Christ are our moral compass. We believe love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. We believe every human being bears the image of God and therefore has inalienable God-given human rights. And we believe the Church is at its most faithful when it looks and sounds like Jesus.

I do not say this to be pugnacious. I say it because the confusion is damaging souls, disfiguring Christian witness, and driving people away from the fellowship they hunger for.

In this time of noise, fear, and false certainty, let us hold fast to Christ.

Pastor Ben,

Resurrection Lutheran Church